Troubleshooting Agile

Once you have a bunch of great ideas from your reflection, how can you make sure you and your team actually use what you've learnt? We illustrate several variations on one of our favourite learning-capture methods, the humble checklist - including self-improving lists and an idea that survived ten years by migrating among multiple checklist formats, from wiki page to slackbot. SHOW LINKS: - The Checklist Manifesto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Checklist_Manifesto - Jeffrey's Glider Training Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6QcOQ3olbE - Elizabeth Hendrickson's Testing Cheat Sheet: http://testobsessed.com/2007/02/test-heuristics-cheat-sheet/ - Making Software Like Intensive Care or Bombing Missions: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2008/09/10/making-software-like-intensive-care-or-bombing-missions/ - Exploratory Testing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_testing - Human in the Loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-in-the-loop *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

We continue our mini-series on how to learn by considering ways to realise your learning - that is, how to convert what you've learnt (say, from a retrospective) into changed behaviour. We discuss how and why to create pre-planned actions in response to situations where you'd like to do better, for instance software outages or suspiciously optimistic delivery dates. SHOW LINKS: - Feynman on the Challenger disaster: https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/Appendix-F.txt - Reg Revans, Action Learning: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/resources/theories.html#action - Helicopter pilot story: https://www.verticalmag.com/features/ejection-decision/ - Ejection Decision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa1Ba_NEobs *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Second of two episodes on reflection. We often say that learning is horrible and suggest you do it anyway - but how exactly can you learn? We use a model from Chris Argyris - single-loop and double-loop learning - and concentrate today on the double-loop style, which you might want to try if you want to radically change your thinking and try something completely new (which might or might not work!) SHOW LINKS: - Argyris on single- and double-loop learning: https://hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations - Crossing the Chasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm - Innovator's Dilemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma - The Lean Startup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lean_Startup *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

First of two episodes on reflection. We often say that learning is horrible and suggest you do it anyway - but how exactly can you learn? We use a model from Chris Argyris - single-loop and double-loop learning - and concentrate today on the single-loop style, most appropriate for gradual improvement of a particular metric or characteristic. SHOW LINKS: - Argyris on single- and double-loop learning: https://hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations - Shu Ha Ri: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

We have a look at Jason Palmer's "You Don't Need Standup" with a mutual learning, curious attitude. What can we learn from Jason? What information does he have that we don't? Where do we agree with him? We conclude that indeed some teams may be better off without standups - see Fred George's Programmer Anarchy for example - but before embarking on the experiment, it's worth asking "how will I know if it's working or not?" SHOW LINKS: - You Don't Need Standup: https://medium.com/@jsonpify/you-dont-need-standup-9a74782517c1 (By Jason Palmer, https://twitter.com/palmerj3 ) - Hacker News discussion of YDNS: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17671464 - Fred George on Programmer Anarchy: https://www.slideshare.net/fredgeorge/programmer-anarchy-and-managerless-processes - Cockburn on people in software development: http://web.archive.org/web/20170620211523/http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-linear%2c+first-order+components+in+software+development *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

A few more thoughts on alignment, inspired by a list of "XP Mistakes" from the great J. B. Rainsberger. We look at some of the antipatterns and lessons learnt and, as usual, tell a few of our own stories about mistakes we've made and observed. SHOW LINKS: - XP, My Greatest Misses: https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/xp-my-greatest-misses - CITCON: http://citconf.com/ - "Are you frustrated? It's probably your fault": https://vimeo.com/131854234 - Five Dysfunctions of a Team: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team - Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - The First Thing to Build is Trust: https://bradapp.blogspot.com/2005/02/first-thing-to-build-is-trust.html - Cockburn article on people in software development: http://web.archive.org/web/20170620211523/http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-linear%2c+first-order+components+in+software+development *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

The final episode of our mini-series on achieving alignment. We list five different objections we hear to the goals or process of alignment, and suggest ways to address them. We also tell a success story based on achieving alignment. SHOW LINKS: - Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - Alistair Cockburn's mutiny koan: https://staging.cockburn.us/self-organization-means-mutiny/ *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Episode 3 of our mini-series on achieving alignment. This week, we finally explain some methods for aligning with your team, your boss, or your peers. Methods include Test-Driven Development for People (aka the Ladder of Inference) and a creative use of the two-column case study. Next time - questions from listeners and common concerns we hear when moving to alignment. SHOW LINKS: - Chris Argyris on alignment and skilled incompetence: https://hbr.org/1986/09/skilled-incompetence - Video on Test-Driven Development for People: http://douglassquirrel.com/how-i-work.html - Guide to the two-column case study technique: https://blog.jeffreyfredrick.com/2015/04/11/using-the-two-column-case-study/ *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Our next instalment on alignment as a tool for agile success. If alignment is as valuable as we claimed in the previous episode, why doesn't every organisation have it? We use ideas from Dr. David Burns to classify resistance to alignment into "outcome" and "process" resistance, then give examples of each and tell a story about a startup where the founders are (according to them) totally aligned, but no one else is. Next time: steps to achieve alignment despite resistance. SHOW LINKS: - Dr. David Burns, Feeling Good: https://feelinggood.com/ - Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y - Thinking Fast and Slow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Today, the first instalment of a little series on a big problem affecting agile teams: alignment. What does it mean when your team or company isn't aligned? How does misalignment show itself and what effects does it have on your progress? Jeffrey and Squirrel describe four different alignment patterns and tell real-life stories about the woes of misaligned teams. Future episodes in the series will cover resistance to alignment and how to get everyone headed in a common direction. SHOW LINKS: - Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - “Prevent Your Strategy Offsite from Being Meaningless”: https://hbr.org/2014/09/prevent-your-strategy-offsite-from-being-meaningless - Five Dysfunctions of a Team: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Lencioni/dp/0787960756/ *** We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2